The Wi-Fi Alliance this week announced Wi-Fi Direct, a new short-range wireless standard capable of performing many of the same tasks as Bluetooth, but at Wi-Fi speeds.
Wi-Fi Direct allows devices to connect to one another via Wi-Fi without joining any other sort of network.
You can just connect your Netbook directly to that printer and print or send music from your Wi-Fi music player to your Wi-Fi speakers without either of them being on the same network.
The technology should be available by the middle of 2010.